Rights

Under Copyright law no public performance of a protected play may be given either in its entirety or in the form of excerpts, whether or not any admission charge is made, without the prior written consent of the owner of the copyright (or his/her accredited agent). Such consent must be obtained before rehearsals start.

On occasion, it may be necessary for the copyright owner to withdraw rights in a particular play. For that reason it is in your own interest to check the status of the rights before booking a performance venue.

The first step when applying for amateur rights is to check that the rights are actually available. If the title you are hoping to produce is currently in the West End, or on tour, then it is highly likely that the rights will have been withdrawn by the copyright owner. However, rights may be unavailable for any number of reasons and it is essential that you check with us prior to setting up a production regardless of where you or your proposed production are based. Enquiring about the status of the rights does not constitute an agreement that rights will be granted, or that they will remain available.

For all enquiries regarding the availability of performance rights please download a copy of our enquiry form and submit it by email to rights with the title of the play and the name of your organization in the subject heading (eg. PHAEDRA’S LOVE / Talisman Theatre Group) or by post to Amateur Performance Rights, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London, W1F 8GQ.

Please make sure that you have filled in all sections of the form as any failure to do so will delay your enquiry. We endeavor to respond as quickly as possible to every request but as we receive a very large volume of enquiries please allow up to five business days for a response.

Once you have established that the rights for a particular title are available for performance the next step would be to apply for a licence. In order for us to grant a licence for a production, we will need to know certain details such as the exact number of performances, the ticket prices and seating capacity of the venue in which you are planning to perform. You must apply for rights no later than six weeks before beginning rehearsals, and please note that it is a breach of copyright to begin rehearsals or issue publicity without having a valid performing rights licence. It is therefore in your own interests to seek written permission from the copyright owner before committing yourself to a production. Please note that unless you have acquired such permission, and are in receipt of a valid performing rights licence this availability may be subject to change at any time.

To apply for amateur performance rights please download a copy of our application form and submit it by email to rights with the title of the play and the name of your organisation in the subject heading or by post to Amateur Performance Rights, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Limited, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London, W1F 8GQ. 

Please make sure that you have filled in all sections of the form as any failure to do so will delay your application. We endeavor to respond as quickly as possible to every application but as we receive a very large volume of requests please allow up to ten business days for a response.

Providing the rights for the Play are available and we have all the information that we require to process your request, we will write to you with a quotation. Amateur rights are generally charged a fee per performance, which can vary depending on the Play. If the price quoted is acceptable to you then we will draw up an amateur licence which, on receipt of payment, we will email to you as a PDF (unless a hard copy is specifically requested). Please note that we are unable to send you your licence until we receive payment.